County Louth’s Gavin Tiernan fired a superb round of 65 to lie in a share of fourth place after the opening round of the 130th Amateur Championship at Royal St George’s and Royal Cinque Ports.
Tiernan, who had to pre-qualify for his debut in the championship, is one shot off the pace with the final round of stroke play qualifying to come tomorrow where he will play Royal Cinque Ports.
The 19-year-old found Royal St George’s to his liking on Monday roaring out of the traps with four birdies in five holes.
A double bogey on the par-3 6th was followed by a birdie on the 7th and a bogey on the 8th saw him out in 33.
But he rallied on the back nine with birdies on 12, 14 and 17 to shoot five-under and leave him in a comfortable position to make the top-64 for the matchplay stages.
Also in a good position is Stuart Grehan who fired a for-under 68 at Royal Cinque Ports to share ninth place on four-under.
Joshua Hill of Galgorm Castle is a shot further back alongside Gavin O’Neill of Malahide.
Douglas’ Jack Murphy is two-under with Roganstown star Sean Keeling a shot further back and that rounds off the under-par scoring for the Irish with Keeling in the all important 60th spot which is shared by 30 players heading into D-Day today.
James Gould-Healy is a shot outside the mark on level-par while Keith Egan and Thomas Higgins are plus one with Paul Coughlan and Luke O’Neill still in the mix at two-over.
USA’s Emil Riegger and England’s Kris Kim posted six-under 64’s at Royal St Georges to take advantage of the pristine early conditions on the sunny Sandwich Bay coastline, which was later matched by France’s Ugo Malcor, who fired a six-under 66 at Royal Cinque Ports this afternoon.
The trio lead a packed leaderboard following the first of two stroke play qualifying rounds.The top-64 qualifiers after tomorrow will progress to the match play rounds which begin on Wednesday at Royal St Georges.Riegger, a 20-year-old for the University of Maryland, raced to the top of the leaderboard at the 15-time Open venue, making eight birdies and a couple of bogeys to hit the front early.
After opening with four birdies in his front nine, he added three more to his tally by the 15th to get to seven-under, before dropping his first shot of the day at the challenging 471-yard par 4. He finished by trading another birdie with a bogey on the 16th and 17th holes.
The 89th-ranked player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking® (WAGR®) entered the week with some exceptional recent results to call on. He’s recorded five top-10 finishes this year, highlighted by a solo fourth at the Scottish Men’s Open Championship earlier this month.
However, it didn’t take long for his scintillating opener to be matched. Teeing off just under half an hour after, European Junior Ryder Cup player, Kris Kim, displayed his outstanding pedigree, bouncing back from an early hiccup to match the day’s best score. Following a bogey at the 2nd, Kim made a birdie at the 3rd, an eagle at the 7th, and back-to-back birdies at the 8th and 9th to go out in four under, setting the stage for another solid nine-holes coming home.
The 17-year-old made another four birdies at the 10th, 12th, 13th, and 14th holes, offset by a couple of bogeys at the 11th and 15th. Kim, who won The Boys’ Amateur in 2023, became the youngest player to make a PGA Tour cut since 2015 earlier this year, where he birdied his final hole to comfortably make the weekend at The CJ Cup Byron Nelson. He’s looking for another memorable week at two iconic venues.
Their scores were matched by Malcor, who played solidly at Royal Cinque Ports this afternoon.
The Frenchman was clinical in his opening round, making seven birdies and a bogey en route to his six-under 66, capitalising on his recent run of good form, highlighted by an equal sixth finish at the St Andrews Links just over a week ago.Among the chasers are England’s Charlie Forster and Italy’s Matteo Cristoni, who both recorded bogey-free five-under 67’s at Royal Cinque Ports.
Round two will see the 288 competitors battle it out for the top-64 who progress to the match play on Wednesday at Royal St George’s.
Scoring HERE
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